The Rice Thresher | Wednesday, November 14, 2018 by The Rice Thresher

THE RICE THRESHER | VOLUME 103, ISSUE NO. 11 | STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916 | RICETHRESHER.ORG | WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2018

MIND THE GAP

SPORTS

Pay gap for full professors increases since 2010

2010 MALE

2017

FEMALE

MALE

FEMALE

$11,580 $6,526 $156,421

$195,432

$183,851

$149,895

LILA GREINER & RISHAB RAMAPRIYAN FOR THE THRESHER & ASST. NEWS EDITOR

Female full professors at Rice earned an average of $11,580 less than their male counterparts during the 2017-18 academic year, according to data provided by Vice President for Finance Kathy Collins. The data shows the pay gap has consistently increased for full professors over the last eight years. In 2010-11 the gap was $6,526, which rose to $9,244 in 2013-14 and $11,580 in 2017-18. In 2017, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that nationwide faculty pay gaps are most pronounced at the full professor level, with male full professors earning on average $18,200 more than female full professors at four-year nonprofit colleges nationwide in 2015. “This gap results in part from the smaller proportion of female faculty at the full level, as well as the shorter number of years on average for women at the full level,” Collins said in an email. According to provost Marie Lynn Miranda, much of the pay gap remains as a result of former male administrators who have returned to faculty positions but retain higher salaries due to their previous leadership roles. An additional cause is the smaller proportion of women faculty in fields that “command higher salaries.” Four male deans were counted in the 2017-18 averages, but not the 2013-14 averages, according to Collins. Collins said the pay gap is only significant at the full professor level. SEE PAY GAP PAGE 4

PROFESSOR $5,999

$9,775 $111,704

$101,929

$118,942

$112,943

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR $420

$10,427 $90,476

$107,712

$107,292

$80,049

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

infographic by sydney garrett

NUMBERS IN ORANGE REPRESENT PAY GAP BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN

FEATURES

Radio Free Sid: Rocking on since 1975 ELLA FELDMAN ASST. FEATURES EDITOR

In early 2015, Carson Ariagno was a high school senior in the midst of deciding where he would spend the next four years of his life. He visited Rice on what he described as a beautiful spring day. As his tour guide took his group through the South college grove, the air was suddenly filled with a beautiful croon from above. “Really old Taylor Swift. I think it was ‘Love Story’ or something,” Ariagno, a Sid Richardson College senior, recalled. “It just created this magical environment.” Later that day, Ariagno said, he decided to attend Rice. And four years later, he’s in charge of making that very same magic. The vintage Taylor Swift that Ariagno heard on that beautiful spring day was a result of Radio Free Sid, the Sid Richardson College tradition of blasting student-selected music from their

seventh-floor balcony every Friday, from 4 to 7 p.m. Radio Free Sid dates back to 1975, according to an article about the tradition featured in a fall 2015 edition of Rice Magazine. The article said that four students conceived a plan to play “music and commentary” from their fourth-floor Sid Richardson suite. According to the article, their commentary included insults at the men of Lovett and Will Rice colleges, and a few days after they started, their college president told them to knock it off. Instead of stopping, the students moved their speaker to the elevator equipment room on the roof. They were soon stopped again, but this time by their college magister. The commentary ended, but the music portion continued. In the fall of 1976, the college purchased a pair of speakers and an amplifier, officially starting the Radio Free Sid tradition that continues today. Ariagno now serves as his residential college’s “stacks rep,” and his primary

responsibility in this position is to oversee the execution of Radio Free Sid. He took on this position over the summer after Sid Richardson College President Sara Meadow asked him if he’d be up for it. About a week before classes started in August, he sent an email to his college explaining the tradition and gauging interest. According to Ariagno, around 60 students signed up to play music. And because there are only 36 Fridays in the academic year, not including winter break, not every student who wanted to participate this year will be able to. He used a random generator to choose students, and then assigned them to certain weeks. After putting together the schedule, Ariagno said his role in the tradition has been pretty hands-off. “It’s really on the people who get picked,” he explained. “I don’t really have a hand on any of the music that goes out.” SEE SID RADIO PAGE 6

dj favorites: sid students share their favorite songs they’ve played RAMEE SALEH, senior

RYAN CARLSON, junior

“Best to You” by Blood Orange | November 17, 2017

“GOT IT GOOD” by KAYTRANADA | August 24, 2018

LYNN ZHU, senior

SARASOTA SERULNECK, sophomore

“Crush” by Blood Orange | November 17, 2017

“I Don’t F*** WIth You” by Big Sean | December 1, 2017

Volleyball earns C-USA top seed MADISON BUZZARD ASST. SPORTS EDITOR

First-seeded Rice will face eighthseeded University of North Carolina, Charlotte in the opening game of the Conference USA Volleyball Championship Tournament, beginning on Friday, Nov. 16th in Huntington, West Virginia. The C-USA Championship bracket, released Sunday, also features (2) Florida Atlantic University v. (7) University of North Texas, (3) Western Kentucky University v. (6) Southern Mississippi University and (4) University of Texas, San Antonio v. (5) Florida International University in the quarterfinals matchups. Rice stands atop C-USA with a 12-2 C-USA record, one game ahead of four teams tied at 11-3. Charlotte posted a losing record (6-8) in C-USA play this season. In the two teams’ lone regular season matchup, Rice defeated the 49ers at home, 3-0. Last season, Western Kentucky defeated North Texas in the C-USA Championship in a battle of C-USA’s topseeded teams. If chalk holds again this year, Rice will challenge Florida Atlantic in the tournament final. FAU ended the Owls’ team-record 15game win streak last Thursday by winning a hard fought five-set match in Boca Raton, Florida. In that match, Rice dropped the first two sets before battling back to force the race-to-15 tiebreaker. Owls head coach Genny Volpe said fighting against C-USA’s elite is a tall task late in the season. “[It] was a battle from start to finish,” Volpe said. “We got our backs up against the wall and then our team really rallied. We just need to clean up the little things against a solid team like FAU or they will make you pay.” In the short-term, Rice would be remiss to overlook Charlotte. SEE VOLLEYBALL PAGE 11 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Rice Dance Theatre: Inside the making of ‘Limitless’ KATELYN LANDRY THRESHER STAFF

What does being limitless feel like? To Rice Dance Theatre co-company manager Matthew Brehm, being limitless means having a “sense of joy and hope.” He hopes RDT will empower and inspire audiences with their 2018 fall show titled “Limitless,” a collection of creative performances. “I think that when people leave, they will feel empowered to do whatever they wanna do, in a creative sense,” Brehm said. The show marks the first major performance for the fall 2018 cast of RDT performers, all of whom have been working on their dances since the beginning of the semester. According to returning RDT choreographer Rae Holcomb, this year’s group is the largest in the history of RDT, with over 40 members including 14 choreographers. The company has been classified as a student organization since its founding in 1979, however it is currently transitioning into a club sport. RDT is a pre-professional dance company that oﬀers Rice students the opportunity to pursue dance alongside their academics. Choreographers Rae Holcomb and Helen Bonnyman said they joined RDT because of their extensive dance backgrounds and desire to continue pursuing their lifelong loves of dance. SEE LIMITLESS PAGE 9

THE RICE THRESHER

2 • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2018

NEWS

Pilot series makes consent a dinner conversation SAMMI JOHNSON THRESHER STAFF

Lovett College hosted a pilot supper series in its commons to continue sexual education after the conclusion of Critical Thinking in Sexuality. Students Transforming Rice Into a Violence-free Environment will have pilots at the other residential colleges starting next semester, according to STRIVE liaison Kusha Gupta. Gupta said she proposed the idea for the pilot after contributing to the “70 of 70” opinion piece about sexual assault in the Thresher. Hoping to fulfill the article’s call to action, Gupta said she created the STRIVE Supper Series because she didn’t want the discussion to end with the op-ed. Gupta and 16 small group discussion leaders — one at each dinner table — led the first dinner, which focused on consent. Gupta said she chose the topic with the help of the Oﬃce of Sexual Violence Prevention and Title IX Support, because consent is at the core of issues relating to sexual violence. “[The conversation is] looking at what consent seems to be, and discussing what it should actually be,” Akin Bruce, Lovett president, said. “It’s making sure everyone is on the same page about what consent means and when it is actually met, not when it seems to be met or is traditionally met.” The dinner lasted an hour on Nov. 12, and began with Gupta introducing the topic and discussing the meaning of consent. Then, discussion broke oﬀ into smaller groups, broken up by table. Gupta said holding discussions in the commons during dinner would encourage busy students, or people who wouldn’t typically engage in the conversation, to participate. “My table was mostly freshmen and they knew most of the information,” discussion lead Ariana Engles said. “The students were still really engaged and we still had a productive conversation about consent even though some of them knew the information already.” During the small group discussions, discussion leaders, who were mostly recruited

yi luo / thresher

Ariana Engles, Lovett College junior, leads a small group discussion during the STRIVE Supper Series pilot, which focused on consent.

by Gupta, used a set of questions to guide the conversations but occasionally deviated from the outline to promote student participation. The questions ranged from the definition of consent to the gender and cultural constructs around the idea of consent. “The discussion leads don’t have to have all the answers, they just have to be able to ask questions that really promote deeper thinking, and create an environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts,” Gupta, a Lovett sophomore, said. “We wanted the discussion leads to have a certain natural ability and instinct to facilitate a healthy discussion.” At the end of the dinner, Gupta encouraged students to fill out feedback forms and held a raffle for participants to win a $5 giftcard to Coffeehouse, which were funded by money Lovett set aside for STRIVE. Besides continuing education, Bruce, a Lovett senior, said the supper series leadership team hoped the raffle would incentivize students to attend. STRIVE advertised the event and the raffle through Lovett’s Facebook page and through collegewide emails. “I think we really have to work on the buy-in and getting people to come, and I

think that’s what these pilots are for,” Greg Van Kirk, Duncan College president, said. “I think each college will have to try their own marketing tactics to see what worked and what didn’t work.”

The idea is that we can have productive conversations about [sexual violence] and we can tangibly move forward with them in our colleges. Kusha Gupta STRIVE LIAISON Gupta said one of the primary motivations behind creating the supper series is to prevent occurrences of sexual assault on campus. According to the Survey of Unwanted Sexual Experiences, which was administered to all Rice students in 2015, one in four women, and one in six people, have experienced sexual misconduct while attending Rice.

“There’s clearly an issue of sexual violence at Rice, like at many other colleges,” Gupta said. “Those statistics are not okay. The pain that occurs after an incident of sexual violence is tremendous, and it stays with someone for their whole life. Something needs to be done to change it, and this is one way to do that. It certainly won’t fix everything – we don’t know if it will fix anything – but we hope it can.” While all freshmen are required to take a CTIS course the first five weeks of the fall semester, the classes were introduced only two years ago, so not every student has been through the material. Bruce said that alongside CTIS, the STRIVE Supper Series aims to start a conversation and educate students about topics otherwise avoided on campus. “Overall, the goal is that we can have a productive conversation about these things wwithout people being all like, ‘Oh, that’s one of the topics you shouldn’t talk about’,” Bruce said. “People often say ‘I don’t want to talk about that right now’ because it can be a touchy topic. The idea is that we can have productive conversations about those things and we can tangibly move forward with them in our colleges.” Moving forward, Hanszen College junior and STRIVE liaison Karen Qi said the leadership team hopes to receive feedback on the event and change it before introducing pilots at all 11 residential colleges next semester. After the pilots, STRIVE will initiate a fulllength STRIVE Supper Series during the 2019-2020 school year. Other colleges, such as Duncan, have already begun recruiting discussion leads by sending out an email asking for students to apply. “Ideally, I would like this to continue after I’m gone,” Gupta said. “I want for this to become a kind of institutionalized initiative, to become part of the culture, so that the mindset is that the education isn’t just first semester freshman year about sexual violence. The conversation doesn’t stop December of freshman year.”

NEWS

N THE RADAR THOUSAND OAKS VIGIL The Student Association is organizing a vigil, currently scheduled for tonight from 6 to 6:30 p.m. at the RMC Chapel. The vigil will honor the 12 victims of the shooting that occurred at Borderline Bar & Grill last Wednesday during the bar’s college night. The event follows the vigil that took place in late October to honor the victims of the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.

NOV. 14 AT 6 p.m. RMC Chapel

ISLAM IMMERSION Islam Immersion Week 2018 will continue through Friday. The week, hosted by the Rice Muslim Student Association, kicked oﬀ on Monday with a social media campaign and a Henna Night. On Friday, the organization will host an open jummah, a congregational prayer, in the central quad from 2 to 3 p.m. The week will end on Friday with an Islam Immersion Week Banquet in the Duncan Game Theory Classroom at 6 p.m.

NOV. 16 AT 6 p.m. DUNCAN GAME THEORY CLASSROOM

SCREAM IN THE QUAD “Want to scream your lungs out without looking crazy?” The event, which is hosted by YeeJin Yuk, a Martel College junior, advertises catharsis with a “wild quantity of decibels.” The event will take place Friday, Nov. 16, from 12 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Academic Quad.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2018 • 3

Post-midterm elections, clubs keep pushing RANIE LIN THRESHER STAFF

Student organizations continue to promote civic engagement and political involvement following the midterm elections by holding post-election workshops, discussions and events. Their eﬀorts follow the record levels of turnout among Rice students this midterm season. A total of 753 students cast their votes on campus on Election Day, surpassing the turnout levels of the 2016 election, and an additional 545 students voted early. Civic Duty Rice, a nonpartisan organization whose goal is to increase civic education and awareness, will host a post-election event next Saturday with Baker Ripley, a Houston nonprofit, to showcase Houston’s reaction to the midterm results through art. According to Meredith McCain, Civic Duty Rice’s regional director, the event is part of a larger eﬀort to provide more avenues for political expression. “We as a club recognize the importance of giving young people more means to express and form their political opinions outside the immediate context of elections,” McCain, a Duncan College junior, said. “Art, whether it be visual, written or performed, is oftentimes used for political expression and can motivate those who interact with it to take action.” The Texas Tribune reported that 51 percent of registered voters in Harris County cast ballots in the 2018 midterm elections, compared to 32 percent in 2014. “Civic Duty Rice is very pleased with the voter turnout rates,” McCain said. “It’s a sign that people do put trust into our political system and believe in its potential to shape our lives.” Franz Brotzen, president of Rice University Young Democrats, said the increased turnout is a step in the right direction.

charlene pan / thresher

Sunee Kate Quirante, a Lovett College junior and member of the Rice Left, speaks at “Beyond the Ballot: Post-Election Day Workshop.” The goal of the event, according to organizers, was to turn civic eﬀorts toward grassroots organizing and mobilization.

“This year’s dramatic surge in voter participation wasn’t a random occurrence,” Brotzen, a Brown College junior, said. “Beto O’Rourke’s visit overcrowded its 500-capacity venue. The national circus we’ve witnessed over the past two years motivated students to wait in line, sometimes for over an hour, to vote for sanity.” The Rice University College Republicans could not be reached for comment. Rice Left, an organization that describes itself as politically left of the Democratic Party, held a post-election workshop two days after Election Day to encourage continued student engagement. “We must turn our eﬀorts toward grassroots organizing,” the organization said in the Facebook event. “Our roles as students with some degree of privilege are

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NOV. 16 AT 12 p.m. ACADEMIC QUAD

TEDxRiceU SALON TEDxRiceU Salon is hosting student speakers on Friday from 7 to 8 p.m. in Sewall 309. The theme is “Minds Wide Open” and admission is free. The three speakers’ topics will center on policy and politics, memetics and “what it means to be a third-culture kid.”

NOV. 16 AT 7 p.m. SEWALL 309

essential in creating meaningful change within Houston.” Bilal Rehman, a Duncan College junior who helped organize the workshop, said the event featured speakers from the Texas Organizing Project, a left-leaning nonprofit, and Students for Justice in Palestine. “We felt that as Rice students, we’ve historically tended to focus on activism only within the framework of electoral politics,” Rehman said. “We wanted to open up the possibility of engaging in more grassroots organizing.” According to McCain, students are starting to understand the direct consequences that politics and government can have. “It’s our responsibility as young people, as the next generation of leaders, to take ownership of the processes shaping the world around us,” McCain said.

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NEWS

4 • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2018

‘Feminism from a diﬀerent angle’: Club tackles masculinity SAVANNAH KUCHAR THRESHER STAFF

Students shared stories of good and bad masculine role models in their lives over lunch on Monday in the first weekly Healthier Masculinities Together Lunch. Mahdi Fariss, a McMurtry College senior, said he helped found the club Healthier Masculinities Together in order to address issues of toxic masculinity. “I think I saw this as an avenue to say, ‘Hey look, if we help men overcome this sort of box, this construct that is telling them that they need to behave a certain way in order to be a man, we can make everybody’s lives better,’ Fariss said. “So it’s like feminism from another angle.” Joshua Verne, one of the club’s founders, said it is important to distinguish between the different models of masculinities.

“Different visible men in the world can portray a different image of what makes a proper man,” Verne, a McMurtry freshman, said. “For example, Robin Thicke wrote that terrible song, super evocative of sexual assault and he has influence because of that song. We need to know how to differentiate a role model such as Robin Thicke from a role model such as Barack Obama, a leader who carries himself well and who makes an effort to be kind.” At the discussion on Monday, Fariss began with guiding rules such as “Embrace your imperfection and that of others,” “Leave your ego at the door,” and “Be vulnerable, trust others.” There were both men and women present, and students discussed the positive and negative role models of masculinity who influenced them when they were growing up.

Miranda Lee, a McMurtry College junior, and Mahdi Farris, a McMurtry senior, discuss toxic masculinity and male role models at the first weekly Healthier Masculinities Together lunch. sirui zhou / thresher

Reagan Olguin, a McMurtry senior, said he attended the discussion to learn more about what people think being a role model means. “I actually grew up without a dad,” Olguin said, “and I was like the father figure of my household, as the oldest boy in the house. So I just wanted to see what people had to say about being a role model and how maybe I could become a better role model for my brothers and my sisters.” Miranda Lee, a McMurtry junior, said she found the discussion valuable because she could hear other people talk about their own experiences on the topic. “Just hearing people talk about their ideas of masculinity, the different kinds of masculine role models, and how they would want to do better,” Lee said. “It’s also heartening to come and listen to men being open and vulnerable about their experiences.” James Karroum, a Martel College sophomore, said the discussion helped support his feelings about how he was taught to think about masculinity. “Growing up I was a bit doubtful of the way I was raised and so it’s really affirming to hear that it’s okay to reject that in some ways,” Karroum said. The club plans to have discussions every week, on either Monday or Tuesday, with a different topic each week. For the foreseeable future, the meetings will take place in the McMurtry Commons. The next conversation will be covering sexual violence. Fariss said the immediate objective for the club is attracting people to join the conversation. “It’s about getting as many people on board as possible so that the norm changes,” Fariss said. Fariss said that they hope to reach the problematic men in society by first reaching

out to men that are somewhat interested, and eventually changing the culture. “We’re basically shifting the center of what is the norm around masculinity, slowly and gradually through cultural change by getting those that are closest on board,” Fariss said. “My short-term goal is not to find those guys and be like ‘you gotta come to this meeting,’ because one, they would resent us for trying to do that, they would block out anything they would hear, and they wouldn’t feel any sort of social pressure because the guys around them haven’t really bought into it yet.”

Growing up I was a bit doubtful of the way I was raised and so it’s really affirming to hear that it’s okay to reject that in some ways. James Karroum MARTEL SOPHOMORE Women who come to the lunch discussions are asked to bring a masculine-identifying friend with them. Fariss said having a conversation about healthier masculinities and male role models without men present is not productive nor in line with the mission of the club. “We think it’s important to have women be a part of the conversation and certainly welcome women to come to our meetings,” Verne said. “But ultimately our goal is making sure that men are involved in the conversation because men are the focus, masculinity is the focus.”

As pay gap for full professors persists, administration aims to diversify hiring PAY GAP FROM PAGE 1 According to data provided by Collins, female associate professors made on average $5,999 less than their male counterparts during the the 2017-18 academic year. This is a decrease from 2013-14 when the gap was $11,626. At the assistant professor level, the pay gap from the 2017-18 school year amounted to $420, about 22 times smaller than the pay gap of $9,232 in the 2013-14 academic year. In 2010-11, the pay gap for assistant professors was even larger, at $10,427. “There is essentially no gap with assistant professors,” Collins said. “While a gap remains, we have made substantial progress in closing the gap at the associate professor level in the past few years and our work in this area continues.” The provost’s office reviews salary discrepancies as part of the budget process to determine whether pay equity adjustments should be made, according to Miranda. “During hiring season, we provide similar data [on faculty salaries],” Miranda said in an email. “We would point out discrepancies in oﬀers that we see – except deans are acutely sensitive to these issues, and we rarely have any issues to raise.”

According to Collins, the significant pay gap at the full professor level can be partly attributed to disparities in the departments in which male and female faculty members work.

While a gap remains, we have made substantial progress in closing the gap at the associate professor level in the past few years and our work continues. Kathy Collins VP FOR FINANCE “Salary averages by gender may be skewed by departments that have higher than average salaries because of the field and by fields where women are not as represented as men,” Collins said. “Salaries in business and engineering, for example, [are] higher on average than in other fields.” Females accounted for 26 percent of Rice’s business faculty in the fall of 2017, according to the Office of Institutional

Research. In engineering, females made up 23 percent of the faculty. Rice is currently working to increase both the number and proportion of female faculty and faculty of color at the university and in leadership positions at the university, according to Miranda. Miranda said in 2017, roughly 27 percent of current tenured and tenure-track faculty were female. However, of the new faculty who joined Rice in the fall of 2018, 48 percent were female. At the Thresher’s Fall Academic Panel, Ken Whitmire, associate dean for academic aﬀairs, said out of the six new faculty hired in the Wiess School of Natural Sciences last year, five were women. Salary decisions at Rice are initially made by department chairs and deans of schools, accounting for merit, equity, retention, and promotion and tenure decisions, according to Collins. The provost then reviews salaries with respective deans to make final decisions. Collins also said when faculty receive tenure and promotion to higher rank, they receive, on average, a 10 percent salary raise. “The university seeks to pay faculty equitably and commensurate with their performance,” Collins said. “The provost and deans review salaries case by case

and as previously noted, the provost and deans are working to evaluate and address any gender-based pay gaps.” Gender pay gaps are an issue at some of Rice’s peer institutions as well. At private universities like Duke University, female assistant professors made 85 cents to the male dollar in 2014, according to a Report to the Academic Council on Faculty Salary Equity. Data from a report by the American Association of University Professors chapter at Wake Forest University showed that the gap among assistant professors ranged from $2,000 to $7,000 by department in 2012 — smaller than Rice’s gap of $9,232 in 2013-14 but larger than Rice’s 2017-18 gap of $420. At Wake Forest University, female associate professors in the social sciences earned approximately $2,000 more on average than male associate professors in the department. Miranda said the university has taken on concentrated efforts to ensure more diverse applicant pools in the faculty search process, efforts that include both women and people of color. “Pay equity is very important to me as provost, as well as to the academic leadership at Rice more broadly,” Miranda said.

THE RICE THRESHER

5 • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2018

OPINION STAFF EDITORIAL

Prioritize pay equity for full professors The pay gap between male full professors and female full professors is $11,580 as of the 2017-18 academic year (see p. 1). This gap has grown over the past eight years from $6,526 in 2010-11 and $9,244 in 2013-14. Provost Marie Lynn Miranda’s explanation as to why the gap among full professors has not narrowed makes sense — full professors tend to stay in their roles longer, so reducing the pay gap will necessarily be a much slower process. Though we understand why this gap exists, the fact that it has only

widened among full professors since 2010 is concerning. It may take a long time to achieve perfect pay equity, but this is no excuse for nearly doubling the pay gap over the last eight years on an absolute basis. While it remains concerning that a pay gap exists between male and female full professors, the shrinking pay gap for associate and assistant professors is a tangible and encouraging sign of progress. It is clear evidence that Miranda is sincere when she states she is prioritizing pay equity.

The next step for the administration must be to address the pay gap among full professors with the same urgency as it has with assistant and associate professors. The benefits of such an initiative may not manifest for years or even decades, but that should not be a reason for inaction. Rice should continue to hire female professors for high-paying positions and ensure that it is giving women equal opportunities to take on leadership roles. Pay equity is a faroﬀ goal, but the university can only achieve it if Rice continues to push for progress in the short term.

STAFF The Rice Thresher, the oﬃcial student newspaper at Rice University since 1916, is published each Wednesday during the school year, except during examination periods and holidays, by the students of Rice University. Letters to the Editor must be received by 5 p.m. the Friday prior to publication and must be signed, including college and year if the writer is a Rice student. The Thresher reserves the rights to edit letters for content and length and to place letters on its website. Editorial and business oﬃces are located on the second floor of the Ley Student Center: 6100 Main St., MS-524 Houston, TX 77005-1892 Phone (713) 348-4801 Email: thresher@rice.edu Website: www.ricethresher.org Andrew Grottkau* & Emily Abdow* Editors-in-Chief NEWS Anna Ta* Editor Rishab Ramapriyan Asst. Editor Amy Qin Asst. Editor FEATURES Elizabeth Rasich* Editor Ella Feldman Asst. Editor SPORTS Michael Byrnes* Editor Madison Buzzard Asst. Editor OPINION Eric Stone* Editor ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Christina Tan* Editor BACKPAGE Simona Matovic Editor PHOTO Charlene Pan Editor Sirui Zhou Editor COPY Tracey Dibbs Editor Phillip Jaffe Editor

OP-ED

The value of international experiences This heartbreaking, deeply personal experience with poverty in Angola heightened my awareness of poverty back home. India is no stranger to extreme poverty — when you drive through big cities, you see beggars on the street and people living in shanty houses. However, I, like many others, had simply overlooked such poverty. When I went back to India after experiencing life in Angola, I felt more inclined to give back to people in need. I was also more aware of food waste and vowed to cut down on the food that I and people around me threw out. Observing poverty in a foreign environment, where your senses are heightened, helps shed light on issues that seem everyday and unremarkable. If you choose to spend time living abroad, you too may become aware of other aspects of your daily life that you take for granted. This past summer, I decided to take an internship in Argentina, banking on the four years of Spanish I took in high school. Although working in Buenos Aires was manageable, since the engineers I worked with spoke some English, it got much harder when I was sent to Comodoro Rivadavia, a small town in the south of the Patagonian Desert. No one spoke English. I struggled to communicate with peers who spoke fast and used slang among each other. It got lonely and every day for a month, I would glance at the clock repeatedly, waiting for its small hand to turn to five. If it sounds depressing, it was. At the same time, though, I developed resilience each day that I pushed myself to try to speak in my broken Spanish. I also learned to truly appreciate my friends and family who were always willing to cheer

me up on diﬃcult days. To this day, I wonder why I thought it would be a good idea to work with a company that uses Spanish as its only language of business. But that’s who I am — my decision to take up this tough internship was rooted in my will to constantly challenge myself in international settings. So, if you have the resources to travel abroad, you should! If you can find time to study, work or volunteer abroad, by all means, do it. It will expose you to cultures and norms that are completely different from what you might now consider normal. An international experience will push you to be more adaptable, self-sufficient and help you develop new skills like cross-cultural communication, possibly in a foreign language. While I consider myself to be lucky to have had such experiences since middle school, resources at Rice like the study abroad office and faculty department heads can help anyone find out about and prepare for time abroad. Going abroad by yourself can seem daunting, but I encourage everyone to spend some time in a foreign environment. Regardless of how much you enjoy the experience, it will make you a more aware, empathetic and resilient person.

BUSINESS OPERATIONS Shannon Klein Business Director Sara Lopez Marketing Manager Mai Ton Social Media Manager Isabella Gandara Distribution Manager Oland Carter Advertising Manager Karoline Sun Special Projects *Editorial Board member The Thresher is a member of the ACP, TIPA, CMA and CMBAM. © Copyright 2018

YOUR DS OP-E

When I was 13 years old, my dad came back home one day and told me that we were moving to Angola in a month. I remember asking myself, “Angola? Where even is this place?” After all, I was a young Indian boy, and I hadn’t seen much but my local Mumbai neighborhood. As the news started to sink in, I began dreading the reality of leaving behind everything I held dear. Now, though, when I look back at that pivotal point in my life, I realize the true value that was hidden in experiencing life abroad. My hope is that you too will see the often-overlooked value of living internationally. Moving to Angola was one of the most challenging times in my life. I didn’t speak the language, all my friends were back home and, like many 13-year-olds, I was worried about not fitting into a new environment. But one particular experience did a lot to shape the way I look at the world today. In our backyard in Angola, we had a mango tree flourishing with ripe yellow mangoes. I had always been fond of mangoes. When I was much younger, my friends and I used to climb up mango trees and pick the best mangoes before the birds got to them. We would eat mangoes for breakfast, drink my mom’s homemade mango milkshake with lunch and have a mango dessert after dinner. We had to travel home to India for a week, so while I was away, I anxiously waited to savor some homegrown fruit. However, when we returned, most of the mangoes were gone. After a conversation with our gardener, we found out that he had taken them for a friend who could not aﬀord to feed his family any other way.

DESIGN Sydney Garrett Director Marlena Fleck News Designer Katrina Cherk Spotlight Designer Tina Liu Sports Designer Jennifer Fu Opinions Designer Christina Tan A&E Designer Simona Matovic BackpageDesigner Esther Tang Illustrator

SUBMI T

CARTOON BY JENNIFER FU

ONLINE Myra Ramdenbourg Digital Content Editor Charlie Paul Web Editor Nick McMillan Video Editor

AITASH DEEPAK

DUNCAN COLLEGE SENIOR

ews3@rice.edu

THE RICE THRESHER

6 • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2018

FEATURES

INKED: A TATTOO ‘PHOTO BOOK’ ELIZABETH RASICH FEATURES EDITOR

One piece of Nicky Meaux’s teeth art sits on a table in the corner of Coﬀeehouse. Encased in a glass box is a mask with animal and human teeth jutting out of its surface. “I’ve been artistically focused on teeth for a while,” Meaux, a Wiess College senior, said. Some of the teeth come from skeletons Meaux found in the woods — deer, foxes, squirrels and so on — but she was also able to buy a few human and animal teeth from the Texas Art Asylum in [Houston]. She said she didn’t ask for specifics about where they came from. To represent the role of teeth in her art, she got her most recent tattoo of a tooth on her ankle — one of a total of seven diﬀerent tattoos. Meaux’s first and largest tattoo is the mermaid on her thigh. She had it professionally done back home in Wisconsin. “I got that to commemorate my mother who died freshman year [at Rice],” Meaux said. “I’m from Wisconsin and I”d never seen the ocean. She was obsessed with mermaids growing up — our bathroom was full of them. The last time she left the house she flew down to see me and went up to the ocean together.” The design was a collaboration with Milwaukee tattoo artist Scott LaShay. After sending him a draft of the tattoo, they sent edits of the design back and forth, each making adjustments. There was a mistake in the tattoo — one of the mermaid’s hands looked xinyu chen/thresher “funky” according to Meaux. She got the

FROM PAGE 1

SID RADIO

Every time Friday afternoon rolls around, that day’s assigned person will meet him on the seventh floor with some device — usually a phone or a laptop — that they can leave up there for three hours playing something. The only rules are that whatever is played cannot be inflammatory or break the Rice Code of Student Conduct, and that the three hours must be bookended with AC/DC’s “Back in Black” — Sid Richardson’s official theme song, according to its website. Otherwise, students are free to play whatever they want.

tattoo touched up to cover the hand with the mermaid’s hair. “It still looks a little stumpy,” Meaux said. “No one [notices] until I say, and then they’re like, ‘Oh, eww.’” Her second tattoo, a hosta plant on her arm, also has a meaning tied to her roots in Wisconsin. Her grandmother’s neighbor Lucille once gave her grandmother a cutting of a hosta plant which she planted outside her house. “When my parents got their first house [the hosta plant] came with, and then when they moved again to go to the rural town where I spent a lot of my childhood, it came too,” Meaux said. “It’s a multigenerational plant. It smells super powerfully so I would step outside my door and smell them. We called them Lucilles.” She got the tattoo at Red Dagger, a tattoo parlor in [Houston], after following the work of the tattoo artist Ringo Leone. The last of Meaux’s professional tattoos is a wishbone and the number 13 on her ankle. She got it on Friday the 13th, a day that many tattoo parlors have deals for flash tattoos, according to Meaux. Flash tattoos are pre-designed tattoos that parlors oﬀer as part of a catalog. “It’s a really good deal,” Meaux said. “It’s not meaningful but it’s a really good way to get your feet wet with tattoos.” According to Meaux, her other tattoos are “crappy stick and pokes.” Stick-and-poke tattoos are typically homemade tattoos performed with sewing needles rather than at a professional tattoo parlor. Hers were performed by friends. One is a small triangle on her ankle. “We were a little bit drunk, and I said, ‘Oh, do a circle,’ and he’s like, ‘I can’t do a circle right now,’ so I have a triangle, just like every other white hipster girl.” Another is a faded phrase in Greek on the bottom of her leg. Meaux said that the direct translation is “all things flow.” The idea behind the tattoo was to match her friend, but she said she decided halfway through that the phrase was more meaningful to her friend than to her. Instead of maintaining the tattoo, she plans to let it fade and cover it with something else in the next couple of years.

And it doesn’t have to be music. “Most people just go with music, but there’s been a handful of ones in the past where people have played speeches if it’s some kind of political, historical occasion,” Ariagno said. Sarasota Serulneck, a Sid Richardson College sophomore, had the chance to play her audio last year. In her three hours, Serulneck said she played Lil Dicky, Christmas music, alternative folk and “f*** men pop.” She said hearing her music blast across campus was exciting. “I’d already listened to my playlist a couple times, but hearing it coming from the stacks is a totally different experience,” she said.

photo illustration by esther tang

She also has a few pinpoints of ink on her hands from testing out needles. “[I’ve been] obsessed with art ever since I was a kid and I’d like to have some of that on me or with me all the time,” Meaux said. “I’d like to design more of my own in the future.” She likes that even imperfect tattoos take on meaning. “You kind of become a photo book, even if they’re not always nice and crisp forever,” Meaux said. Meaux plans on future tattoos, some of them based on her hobbies. “I hope to be a veterinarian, so I would love to get something to represent that — something animal-related,” Meaux said. “Or maybe do the dumb barista thing where I get like a portafilter on my arm. Just pulling out little parts of my life and putting them on me.” But she pushed back against the notion that all her tattoos should have a deeply personal connection. “Not everything has to be super deep,” Meaux said. “There’s a misconception floating around that every single tattoo has to be very deep and meaningful or be connected to a precious memory. People shouldn’t give others crap for getting aesthetic or just plain fun tattoos.”

Left photo: Nicky Meaux shows oﬀ her hosta plant tattoo. Right photo: Meaux’s leg tattoos. xinyu chen/thresher

Carlson played a set earlier this Serulneck said her favorite thing about Radio Free Sid is how personal semester. He said he mostly played songs he’s come across in recent years, but also people are with their choices. “Sometimes I can guess who made mixed in some of his all-time favorites. the playlist and sometimes it’s a total His set came right after the death of surprise,” Serulneck said, “but it’s Aretha Franklin, so he made sure to play always a pretty accurate snapshot of that her 1967 hit “Respect.” Like Serulneck, Carlson said he found person’s personality.” Sid senior Nishanth Lavendra, who’s the experience thrilling. “I find it kind had a Radio Free Sid of exciting to have set the last three years, everyone listen to said he’s made an effort your music,” Carlson to play songs that are Featuring the POC “You might particularly meaningful artists and the songs said. be the one to show to him. someone their new “I’ve tried to pick I did allowed me to favorite song.” songs or artists that try and inspire some Ariagno, who also mean a lot to me with a diversity and energy works at ktru, said his playlist that tells a story in people. favorite part of being of what I’m experiencing the Sid Richardson at the time,” he said. Nishanth Lavendra stacks representative Lavendra said that last SID RICHARDSON COLLEGE SENIOR is learning about new year, he was extremely frustrated with the government, and he music through his peers. “If I’m out there while I’m setting up channeled some of those emotions into with the person who’s doing the playlist, I creating his playlist. “I made it a point to feature as many talk to them about what they’re playing,” of my favorite [people of color] and queer Ariagno said. “I learn a lot about music artists as possible, as well as songs that sitting up here with it, because a lot I was hoping to evoke some thought of people play stuff that I don’t know in people,” he said. “Featuring the anything about.” And as far as Ariagno’s favorite Radio [people of color] artists and the songs I did allowed me to try and inspire some Free Sid memory, one might think it’s hard to beat hearing “Love Story” on his diversity and energy in people. Sid Richardson junior Ryan Carlson magical stroll across the grove during said the longstanding tradition has his first-ever visit to Rice’s campus. But helped him build connections within his he said it might just be the time, two years ago, when someone played “Goofy residential college. “If I really like a set one day, I’ll look Goober Rock” from the SpongeBob up whose it is and tell them the next time SquarePants Movie. On repeat. For the entire three hours. I see them,” he said.

FEATURES

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2018 • 7

EVERY WEEK IS SHARK WEEK 1

Crossword by Sam Rossum Thresher Staﬀ

Answers will be posted on ricethresher.org and on the Thresher Facebook page. Bolded clues correspond to the theme.

PARTY PATROL:

ESPERANZA editor in chief

features editor

emily a.

categories:

C Wild herds of freshmen. Intimidating, but glad they’re having fun.

A bit on the small side. Would’ve liked to see the venue more integrated into the event.

B-

A You can never go wrong with a cheese platter. And the vegan peanut butter cups were delicious.

FOOD & DRINK

C MUSIC & DANCING

The DJ played a lot of trap music so it felt like a Rice public party. I can do that any weekend for free.

B INTANGIBLES

OVERALL

The silent disco did seem really cool — I just didn’t get to do it.

BI’m gonna sound like a grumpy senior, but I remember better Esperanzas in my younger years.

DOWN 1 Guatemalan goodbye 2 Oﬃce manager in “Parks and Recreation” 3 Like a black diamond 4 No. of loves in a Bob Marley song 5 South Asian flatbreads 6 The end of a sobriety test, perhaps 7 Lindsay of “Freaky Friday” 11 Disco group of which Barry is only one “Stayin’ Alive” 12 Word often used when describing shark teeth 14 BIOC majors, commonly 19 Bushy plant 20 Greek goddess of marriage 21 Many a prayer ending 22 Test for 14-Downs 23 Second most traded currency globally 24 Organism that engages in floatosynthesis 25 Detail, colloquially

Keep the Glass Night at Willy’s Pub

elizabeth r. anna t.

C ATMOSPHERE

news editor

ACROSS 1 How the Thresher creates revenue 4 Label given to a first-year law student 8 Building block for pointillism 9 Shark___: freak weather phenomenon 10 Suﬃx that makes the “fam” hungry 11 What a Great White on the hunt may do 13 Loner in a pod? 15 Org. for Wizards and Magic 16 Ariana Engles, in short 17 ___ Quentin, notorious CA prison 18 Freud claimed they deploy defense mechanisms 20 Shark who may be a bit of a tool? 26 Master of ceremonies 27 Usurper’s desire 28 Peruses the paper 29 Impulse 30 Pants-filler for a nervous wreck 31 Famous “Jaws” line, “You’re gonna need a bigger ___”

Endless subs, bagels and pizza. Gotta love the carbs! Would have appreciated a toaster for my bagel (after all, it's Lovett).

A Perfect sized venue; any smaller and it would’ve been gross but any bigger and it would’ve been a little embarrassingly spare.

A Totally forgot about the silent disco but people’s Snapchat stories looked like they had a great time.

Like a good Rice student, I was looking forward to a night of partying and exploring a museum, but only got to do the former.

B-

Compared to the circus performers of Esperanza 2k16, and rooftop jazz at Minute Maid Park in Esperanza 2k17, I just walked away feeling like this was nothing special.

8:30 to 11 p.m.

A+ Emily Klineberg shoved a cheesy breadstick into my face and it changed my life. I ate four.

Was I the only one who thought the dance floor was super slippery?

Thursday, Nov. 15

BI was kind of excited to interact with the exhibits … not sure I saw a single one though.

ATwenty dollars is a bit steep for a good party that could’ve been in the Grand Hall.

Rice Seniors — Join the Student Philanthropy Committee (SPC) at Willy’s Pub on Thursday, Nov. 15 from 8:30 to 11 p.m.! With a gift of $11 or more, donors will receive an exclusive Comfort Colors senior t shirt, a pint glass, and two free beers on us (21+).

Class of 2019

If you have already made your gift, bring your pint glass to receive two free beers. If you don’t have your glass yet, this is a great time to pick it up!

Give online before “Keep the Glass Night” at giving.rice.edu/students.

THE RICE THRESHER

8 • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2018

ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT

Winter showcases approach This event-packed week will include Dhamaka and “Yukon Breakfast.” Stay up to date on events with our previews. Coming soon to ricethresher.org

LOCAL ART

‘Recognize My Sign’ breathes new life into embroidery CHRISTINA TAN A&E EDITOR

Art is often seen as untouchable and distant, roped oﬀ from visitors and meant to be viewed from afar. Saturday night at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston oﬀered an opposing sight: Visitors leaned in close to examine the minute details of Nicolas Moufarrege’s “Recognize My Sign.” The latest exhibition hosted at CAMH and Moufarrege’s first solo museum exhibition, “Recognize My Sign” tempts interaction from visitors through its painstaking detail and diversity of cultural references. As a medium traditionally associated with the feminine, embroidery and its users have unfortunately remained in the background of mainstream contemporary art. Moufarrege belongs to a new wave of artists seeking to reclaim the skill through radical, bold expression. In “Recognize My Sign,” Moufarrege’s landscapes dance on the line between painting and embroidery, oftentimes intermingling the two. While some pieces feature pure embroidery, others, such as “The Weather Last Tuesday,” show the artist’s painterly mark in combination with his threaded subjects. With nearly 40 tapestries, canvases, photographs and drawings, the exhibition chronicles Moufarrege’s 10-year career in detail. In that short time span, he shows a shocking amount of progress. Visitors begin with his earliest embroidery works; muted and with earth tones, these early works feature visuals that fit best with traditional conceptions of embroidery. Their content, however, speaks to a less traditional rebellion: “Le sang du phénix,” for example, contains symbolism referencing the Lebanese Civil War and its aftermath. Rather than follow a preliminary sketch, Moufarrege instead chose to improvise as he went, a method he called “experimental weaving.” The unplanned nature of this style gives an abstract quality

christina tan / thresher

Visitors examine “The Fifth Day,” a mid-career piece by embroidery artist Nicolas Moufarrege. The piece, like many others by Moufarrege, features disjointed elements: a disc thrower, a pixelated pattern and tesselating shapes.

to his pieces, showcasing a budding rebellious spirit. The next section of the exhibition features developments in Moufarrege’s collage style, with tapestries combining multiple representations, patterns and references. This playful experimentation breathes life into the tapestries, as the viewer’s eye is drawn from one conflicting element to the next. In “The First Time Ever I Saw A Volcano,” a painstakingly detailed volcano crosses into a Renaissance-styled tasteful nude, while five diﬀerent repeating patterns clash for attention in the background. This collage style reaches a peak in the final section of the exhibition, which showcases the influence of New York City on

Moufarrege’s artwork and identity. As an out, queer artist in the ’80s, Moufarrege addresses his sexuality directly in his New York-era work. With glitter dispersed across most works and bright, gaudy pinks and blues, Moufarrege’s last pieces are a far cry from his earliest, muted pieces. These pieces are the most interesting, combining embroidery with painting and sketching, they include a distinct mark otherwise lacking in pure embroidery. In “Look Mickey,” an embroidered Mickey Mouse comic with the dialogue “Look Mickey, I’ve hooked a big one!!” is juxtaposed with stitch work of a nude, muscular male body and a panel of black paint. In particular, Moufarrege’s last works delve into the trend of appropriation, a facet

made more interesting by Moufarrege’s own appropriation of embroidery. Multiple works in the exhibit are ironically clear copies of Roy Lichtenstein’s work, an interesting choice given Lichtenstein’s own propensity to trace artwork from comic books. Unlike past work, however, the end product feels intentional: Rather than forced to collaborate on a single canvas, each element of the tapestry cooperates. Visitors to “Recognize My Sign” can experience the cyclical style of Moufarrege’s experimentation. Featuring an artist unafraid to start anew, each turn around the corner oﬀers a new perspective on the potential of embroidery in contemporary art. The exhibition is on view until Feb. 17.

PLAYFEST Jones College freshman Lydia Wang and Martel College junior Matt Pittard participate in a staged reading of “Have You Seen My Cactus?” written by Kevin Mullin (Jones ’18). The reading was part of a weekend of events celebrating the winners of the first-ever Rice Players Playwriting Competition. The weekend also included a playwriting workshop and a staged reading of “The History of Flight” by Elsa Schieffelin, recruiting coordinator for the Rice Center for Career Development. cloris cai / thresher

THE WEEKLY SCENE

YUKON BREAKFAST Spend Thursday, Friday or Saturday evening at 8 p.m. watching the Rice Players’ “Yukon Breakfast.” Written, directed and performed by members of the Rice Players, the play is a modern take on Frankenstein. Admission is free. Hamman Hall

I WAS LOOKING FOR YOU

ACTIVISM: REACT AND TRANSITION

Inferno Gallery will host VADA major Lindsey Douglas’ “I was looking for you” on Thursday from 8 to 11 p.m. According to the event description, this installation “is sedentary itself, yet simultaneously immersive and interactive.” Free food and beverages will be provided.

Civic Duty Rice and Baker Ripley are collaborating to host a post-election art show on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The show will feature artist reactions to the 2018 midterm elections. Both Houston and student artists will be present.

Inferno Gallery Sewall Hall Courtyard

Baker Ripley Gulfton Campus 6500 Rookin St.

HOUSTON TURKISH FESTIVAL The 26th annual Houston Turkish Festival will kick oﬀ on Saturday at 11 a.m. and continue until Sunday at 9 p.m. The festival will include performances from Turkish artists, authentic coﬀee brewed on sand, face painting and a bazaar. Tickets are $8. Jones Plaza 600 Louisiana St. houstonturkishfest.com

ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2018 • 9

SENIOR STUDIO SERIES

Patching the Past: VADA and English senior Claudia Middleton SUNNY LIU THRESHER STAFF

Sid Richardson College senior Claudia Middleton calls herself a mixed-media artist with a knack for collages. Her studio hosts a collection of pieces made from diﬀerent mediums ranging from cloth to photos to oil paints. Despite dabbling with multiple techniques, Middleton said collage is her favorite. “It’s something in the way [the pieces] already exist,” Middleton said. “I’m recontextualizing [those] materials and images. There’s something about cutting [a piece] out and placing it next to something else that really changes the field of perception.” Middleton points to her own background as an important influence on her artwork. “I grew up in suburban white America,” Middleton said. “There’s a lot of aspects in that environment that are conducive to being questioned. I took it for granted when I was in it, but then I came to Rice and realized there are a lot of structures of oppression and privilege. I have to start to revise my own history. I have the privilege of being in this secure place of knowing who I am — a cisgender white female. [My art] is a personal exploration of my own privilege.” One of Middleton’s pieces hangs in front of her studio window. The sun shines through its collage of translucent fabrics and upon closer examination, pieces of Middleton’s old family pictures can be found. Middleton said she doesn’t actually know anyone in those images. “It’s a transparent quilt,” Middleton said. “For me, it’s exploring the division between the private and public. A quilt is something that’s usually warm and

comfortable. It’s something that has a family history behind it if it’s passed down between generations. I think the idea of a quilt made of translucent materials makes it colder and in doing so, makes the family history colder and more distant.” When asked about her creative process, Middleton said she prefers to begin with a concrete base, allowing herself to then focus on what to do in terms of concept. “I take whatever that [beginning] is and work expressively to make a base,” Middleton said. “I’ll put it up, look at it, then move away and come back to it later. I have to take myself out of the process and think about it.” As a double major in English and visual and dramatic arts, Middleton describes the artistic process of revision to be similar to her writing process of editing, re-editing and proofreading. In addition, Middleton said her time working in studio has enhanced her perspectives in both her academic and personal life. “[Being a VADA student] has been very helpful because it gives me a way to access my own self,” Middleton said. “It grounds me in my understanding of how I see the world and the certain relation to the visual plane — things that are the figure and things that are the ground. It’s made me think critically of the way that things relate to each other.” After she graduates, Middleton plans to teach high school English in Houston with Teach for America. “There’s no part of the creative process that doesn’t apply to education and no part of it that doesn’t apply to my life as an English-aﬃliated person,” Middleton said. “I’m excited to bring creativity into the classroom.”

According to Sid Richardson College senior Claudia Middleton, her senior studio work explores her privilege and upbringing in suburban white America. charlene pan / thresher

LIMITLESS FROM PAGE 1 “It provides the most creative freedom you could ask for,” Holcomb said. Co-Company manager Rebecca Nikonowicz said the show’s theme, “Limitless,” was a collaborative decision. “There’s really no requirement on a theme, so we can do whatever we want,” Nikonowicz said. “We come up with the theme together as a group of oﬃcers — president, treasurer, special events, historians — our whole team. We discuss halfway through the semester based on how the pieces are looking and what the vibe is.” “Limitless” features a wide variety of pieces that range in style, from traditional ballet choreography to innovative contemporary dances. Nikonowicz’s two dances are titled “Commercial Break” and “Infomercial Break.” Their names say it all; instead of being performed with music, these pieces will be performed with commercial and infomercial audio about sleeping medicine and mantis shrimp respectively. “The Vix commercial has been a dream since high school,” Nikonowicz said. “I’m so proud of all of my dancers for taking on such odd roles and working with me because I’ve never done anything like this before. Normally, my dances are very structured. They tend to be a little bit darker, and involve contemporary movement.” Returning RDT choreographer Helen Bonnyman said her dance, “Ferocious,” ties female empowerment into the theme. “[It] is a celebratory expression of female rage and the reclamation of the female body in a culture that perpetuates sexual violence,” Bonnyman said. “In this #MeToo era, especially during the recent Kavanaugh-Ford hearings, I have often felt so enraged and I really channeled that into my piece.” Holcomb said this semester’s performances have been more diﬃcult than most from a choreographer’s perspective. “This semester has held a unique challenge for me,” Holcomb said over email. “My piece involves several moments of audience interaction, which I (nor anyone else in RDT that I know of) have never

According to RDT choreographer Rae Holcomb, this year’s group is the largest in RDT history, with over 40 members.

choreographed into a dance before. There are a lot of unknown variables involved, since you never quite know what someone will do when you bring them up onstage. It has been quite a challenge to get it to work.”

I’m so proud of all of my dancers for taking on such odd roles and working with me because I’ve never done anything like this before. Rebecca Nikonowicz RDT CO-COMPANY MANAGER Every RDT member is required to dedicate several hours a week to the program, according to Brehm.

“You have to attend company classes which are an hour and a half twice a week, and you have to attend at least one rehearsal for each dance that you are in,” Brehm said. “For instance, I’m in three other pieces plus the one I’m choreographing, and I teach a ballet class on Saturday for RDT. That’s 10.5 hours a week for me.” Despite these challenges, Brehm and Nikonowicz agree that performance is by far the most rewarding part of being in RDT. “Being able to perform for our friends and show them what we give 10-plus hours a week for is rather rewarding,” Brehm said. Holcomb said connecting with the dancers is the most rewarding aspect of choreography. “For me, it’s that moment when you and your dancers are on the same page so much that you are practically creating the dance together,” Holcomb said. “Sometimes I’ll be stuck on a particular moment when one of my dancers will suggest, ‘Why don’t we try this other

courtesy rice dance theatre

thing?’ and it feels like they’ve read my own mind better than I can.” For RDT, openness and cooperation among its members is not only imperative, but also encouraging and uplifting. Brehm and Nikonowicz both fondly remembered instances of backstage bonding and camaraderie with other supportive, passionate and close-knit members of Rice’s dance community. “In and out of dance world, everyone looks out for each other,” Nikonowicz said. “I don’t know what I would do without my RDT friends.” RDT will be performing “Limitless” Nov. 15 to 17 at 7:30 p.m. in the upstairs dance theater of the Gibbs Recreation Center. RDT will also be joined by guest performance group BASYK Crew. Tickets will be sold at the door starting at 6:30 p.m. each night of the event and are priced at $5 for Rice students, faculty and staﬀ, and $10 for general admission.

THE RICE THRESHER

10 • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2018

SPORTS ALL DEFENSE: OWLS DEFEAT ‘DOGS

of him. He rose up and dunked the ball ferociously, causing the mostly full student section to erupt with excitement. Going into the locker room at halftime, the Owls led the Bulldogs 36-26. Alabama A&M shifted momentum after halftime. With 13 minutes left in the game, the Bulldogs narrowed the Owls’ lead to only three points after being down by double digits for most of the first half. Rice was able to pull away in the final stretch as Adams and junior guard Robert Martin each made clutch 3-pointers to extend the lead. Martin continued his hot start to the season with 13 points and five rebounds in the game.

I’m just happy that our guys are really starting to buy into that defensive end and knowing the importance of making stops. Scott Pera MEN’S BASKETBALL HEAD COACH

cloris cai / thresher

Redshirt sophomore guard Josh Parrish dribbles past a defender during Rice’s 73-59 victory over Alabama A&M University on Monday at Tudor Fieldhouse. Parrish notched eight points, four assists, and a career-high five blocks in the Owls’ second win of the year.

ERIC BARBER SENIOR WRITER

Rice men’s basketball bounced back from its first loss of the season by defeating Alabama A&M University on Monday by a score of 73-59. Head coach Scott Pera said that he was happy with the team’s performance in the game’s final minutes. “I’m really, really proud of how we finished that game,” Pera said. “This team is showing signs, now through the exhibition season and playing a couple of live games

that they’re handling things better with a lead down the stretch.” The starting lineup for the Owls remained the same from the first two games of the season. Rice began the game strong, getting out to a nine-point lead within the first four minutes. Graduate forward Jack Williams and junior guard Ako Adams were the catalysts for Rice’s big start, scoring seven and six points in that stretch, respectively. Statistically speaking, Adams had his best game in a Rice uniform. He put up career highs in points with 22 and

rebounds with 7 and tied his career high in 3-pointers with 5. According to Adams, his output in the game was the result of hard work in practice. “I’ve just been in a gym, trusting my shot,” Adams said. “My teammates have trust in me; [they] keep telling me to keep shooting. I had a bad shooting night against [the University of Pennsylvania], so they keep my confidence up.” Rice’s highlight of the first half came from freshman guard Chris Mullins. Mullins stole the ball and had a wide-open court ahead

The Owls’ defense also helped seal the game down the stretch. In the last six minutes of the game, Rice did not allow a single Alabama A&M field goal. Pera said that he was thrilled with the way his team played defense. “We were really locked in defensively,” Pera said. “I’m really also proud of our defensive eﬀort tonight. [Alabama A&M shot] 35.9 percent from the floor and 20 percent from three and [we] held [the] team to 59 points. And if you do that, no matter what happens on oﬀense, you’re going to have a chance to win. I’m just happy that our guys are really starting to buy into that defensive end and knowing the importance of making stops.” Rice next will take on its crosstown rival, the University of Houston. The Owls will face the Cougars at UH’s temporary home court on the campus of Texas Southern University tonight at 7 p.m.

Cross country teams earn top-five finishes at regionals SPENCER MOFFAT SENIOR WRITER

1 MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY Rice men’s cross country fought through tough weather conditions on Friday to finish fourth at the NCAA South Central Regional. Head coach Jon Warren said sticking to the game plan paid oﬀ in the tough conditions. “The course was muddy and the wind was strong and the plan was to get in a good position early and hang on,” Warren said. “Everyone took the plan to heart and pulled it oﬀ.” The Owls narrowly missed out on a third-place finish by tallying 141 points, just behind Texas A&M University which finished with 135 points. The University of Arkansas dominated in a first-place showing with 59 points, and the University of Texas came in second with 76 points. After a third-place overall team performance out of 11 teams at the Conference USA Championships in Florida, Rice continued its success by placing six runners in the top 50 overall at the regional meet. The team was led by sophomore Hociel Landa, who finished 19th with a time of 32:18 in the 10-kilometer race. Both Landa and senior Clay Musial received all-region honors by placing in the top 25. According to Warren, both runners put in strong performances at the meet. Warren said he attributed the team’s

fourth-place finish in the meet to the top all-region honors. According to Warren, five runners staying within 50 seconds of success will continue into next season. “We can be excited as five of our top each other. Redshirt sophomore Matthew Murray was Rice’s third-fastest runner and seven and seven of our top nine are all placed 27th overall with a time of 32:43. returning next season,” Warren said. Sophomore Alex Topini (40th, 33:08), senior Adolfo Carvalho (41st, 33:09) and WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY freshman Andrew Abikhaled (47th, 33:23) After finishing third at the Conference USA followed Murray. Warren said the grind of pushing Championships, Rice women’s cross country through the season’s tough workload shined by finishing fifth out of 22 teams at the helped the team achieve its current level NCAA South Central Regional. The race was the third consecutive meet in which the Owls of success. finished in the top five; “This group pulled Rice placed second out together all season, of 23 teams on Oct. 13 at through early mornings the Santa Clara Bronco and the heat of August Invitational. and September to I’m extremely On Friday, the Owls really be ready for the excited to just go were led by sophomore championship meets,” to [nationals], race Lourdes Vivas de Warren said. to the best of my Lorenzi, who earned Overall, Warren said her first career NCAA he was very happy with abilities, and enjoy Championship berth. the team’s eﬀort during the experience. She qualified after the race. placing 10th overall in “I think it was both the 6-kilometer race. As a combination of being Lourdes Vivas de Lorenzi a team, the Owls tallied a little underestimated SOPHOMORE RUNNER 162 points in their fifthand also performing better than what was expected that place finish, trailing (in ascending order) made the results at the [regionals] seem Texas A&M, Texas State University, UT, and Arkansas. Rice missed out on fourth place extraordinary,” Warren said. The Owls’ season may not have ended by just eight points. Though Vivas de Lorenzi said the in a top-three finish at regionals, but several individual runners came home team didn’t achieve its overall goal, she with awards. Three runners turned in all- also said the team ran well against many conference performances and two received strong opponents.

“We wanted to place top-two as a team but we were 73 points away from second place,” Vivas de Lorenzi said. “However, it was a very competitive field and we still improved tremendously from 11th place last year to fifth place this year.” Rice also received NCAA All-Regional performances from freshman Ryann Helmers (17th, 21:21) and junior Khayla Patel (25th, 21:36). The Owls’ youngest class made a statement on Friday, with freshman Ashley Messineo placing 42nd with a time of 22:05 and freshman Alyssa Balandran placing 74th with a time of 22:48. The next best finisher for Rice was sophomore Mary Claire Neal, who narrowly placed within the top 100 with a time of 23:22 in the 6-kilometer race. According to Vivas de Lorenzi, the freshmen’s race performance was particularly impressive. “I am so proud of all our freshmen,” Vivas de Lorenzi said. “They all really stepped up to help the team and have been great in general. I’m really excited to see what we will do next year since we have such a young team and all of our runners will be back next season.” Next Saturday, Vivas de Lorenzi travels to the University of Wisconsin to compete in the NCAA Championships. She said she was surprised but gratified to qualify for the nationwide competition. “I never thought I would be making it to nationals as a sophomore,” Vivas de Lorenzi said. “I’m extremely excited to just go to Wisconsin, race to the best of my abilities, and enjoy the experience.”

SPORTS

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2018 • 11

Q&A: Men’s basketball: Rice v. Houston joint preview RICE THRESHER & DAILY COUGAR

Rice men’s basketball takes on the University of Houston on Wednesday night at Texas Southern University. So far, Rice has a 2-1 record, and Houston won its first and only game of the season in a 101-54 beatdown of Alabama A&M University. Thresher Assistant Sports Editor Madison Buzzard and Daily Cougar Sports Editor Andres Chio came together to discuss the game, and what the matchup portends for the two teams. WHO DO YOU THINK IS THE BIGGEST IMPACT PLAYER FOR YOUR TEAM EARLY IN THE SEASON? Last season

BUZZARD: was abysmal

for Rice men’s basketball. Although 11 players scored at least two points per game, only two starters averaged double-digit scoring and the Owls finished 4-14 in Conference USA and 7-24 overall. Last year’s leading scorer, Connor Cashaw, transferred to Creighton University, and 3-point marksman A.J. Lapray

medically retired from basketball. Head coach Scott Pera retooled, in part by adding 2016 Rivals150 recruit Josh Parrish via transfer, but two key players remain from last season’s squad: junior guard Ako Adams and junior forward Robert Martin. Martin is shooting 77.8 percent from the field and 80 percent from 3-point range so far this season, albeit over a small sample size, and Adams is the Owls’ undisputed floor general. After Rob Gray

CHIO: graduated,

there was some worry about if Houston’s offense could replace his production. Whether it was in a single player or a committee of players, players needed to step up. Senior guard Corey Davis Jr. has been that player. He was Houston’s second-best scorer overall and its best 3-point shooter in 2017-18 and has picked up where he left off. Davis Jr. had nine 3-pointers in the exhibition against Dallas Baptist, which would have tied the school record if it was an official game, and had another five against Alabama A&M. If he keeps playing like this, he will get all the attention that Gray used to get.

FROM PAGE 1

VOLLEYBALL

Despite the 49ers’ lowest-ranked C-USA Tournament seeding and after averaging only 10 wins from 2012 to 2016, Charlotte has won 19 games in 2017 and 16 games so far in 2018 and earned consecutive C-USA Tournament appearances. Nonetheless, Rice has a substantial advantage in head coaching experience: 49ers head coach Karen Weatherington is in only her fourth year as Charlotte’s head coach; Volpe is in her 15th season with Rice.

We’re not going to be defeated after this, only stronger and more focused heading into the C-USA Tournament. Genny Volpe VOLLEYBALL HEAD COACH During Volpe’s tenure, the Owls have qualified to the NCAA Tournament twice by at-large bid (2004, 2008) and once by automatic bid (2009, Rice’s only C-USA Championship victory). In 2016, Rice made it all the way to the C-USA Tournament final before falling to Western Kentucky. This edition of Rice volleyball excels on the defensive end. The Owls are ranked fifth in the nation in digs per set (18.3), led by junior libero Lee Ann Cunningham, who has been named C-USA’s Defensive Player of the Week three times. In passing, freshman setter Carly Graham and junior setter Adria Martinez have each notched over 560 assists on the season. Rice is also exceptional in attacking: Volpe’s squad is NCAA’s eighth most efficient hitting team (14.49 kills per set). Rice appears even more dominant compared to C-USA opponents. In C-USA,

WHICH AREA DOES YOUR TEAM MOST NEED TO IMPROVE UPON? Three-point

BUZZARD: shooting.

Rice converted only eight of 30 3-point attempts in its season-opening win against Saint Leo University, and disappointed with a 6-for-18 mark from 3-point range in a road loss to the University of Pennsylvania. Adams is the only Rice player other than Martin who is shooting more than 30 percent from the 3-point line. Drive-and-kick options are hardly featured in the Owls’ offense: Transfer forward Jack Williams is 2-for-10 from deep this year and Adams has only eight total assists. Parrish, a rugged guard, excels at slashing to the basket. The ball should transfer hands between Adams and Parrish to alternate between a perimeter motion offense and a slashing offense. The Cougars

CHIO: need to get

depth pieces like sophomore Brison Gresham and junior Chris Harris Jr. more involved in the game. Senior Breaon Brady did a good job of not picking up a lot of fouls against Alabama A&M, but that is unlikely to last. Brady

Rice is ranked first in opponent hitting percentage, opponent service aces and digs. The Owls also stand in C-USA’s top five in blocks, opponent blocks, kills, opponent kills, assists, opponent assists and hitting percentage. By rattling off a 15-game win streak, Rice placed itself in fortuitous company; Western Kentucky, which has won the C-USA Tournament the past two seasons, posted regular-season win streaks of 18 and 23 games in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Last year, the Hilltoppers’ win streak ended on the final game before the C-USA Tournament. WKU redeemed that loss by defeating the same opponent, North Texas, in the final. Rice lost its final two regular-season games this season. On Saturday, the Owls lost to Florida International, 3-1. If Rice defeats Charlotte, FIU potentially looms as a semifinal opponent. However, according to Volpe, her team will not fear Floridian opponents. “We knew this weekend was going to be tough,” Volpe said. “Both FAU and FIU have solid teams and executed well against us. We had too slow of a start and once again had to battle back. However, we’re not going to be defeated after this, only stronger and more focused heading into the C-USA Tournament.”

got into a lot of foul trouble last season and he will foul out more than a few times this year with the Cougars’ physical style of defense. Those times are likely to happen in big games, so it is important to give depth players significant playing time while the games have lower stakes. The first times that these players are on the court for extended lengths should not be in the Fertitta Center opener against Oregon or a big conference matchup against Cincinnati.

WHAT IS YOUR PREDICTION FOR WEDNESDAY’S GAME? UH has an

BUZZARD: excellent

guard combination in Armoni Brooks and Corey Davis Jr. One question is whether the defensive tenacity of Adams and Parrish can pose a challenge to UH’s talented all-around scorers. Since the game is early in the season, maybe both teams will play sloppily. In that case, Williams and Martin have a chance to control the game on the boards: The two players are averaging 7.3 and 5.7 rebounds per game this season, respectively. Then, Adams can use his speed to generate fast break

opportunities. More likely, the Owls will be unable to keep pace with the Cougars’ prolific perimeter shooting, and UH will walk away with a double-digit win. The Owls

size to match up against the Cougars and not be out-muscled in the paint. Another benefit for Rice is that the roster does not seem to have one dominant scorer that Houston can shut down to easily win the game, but that balanced scoring does have a downside. Last season, Houston would go cold across the court and Gray would just go into hero mode, score 30 points and lead the team back. If Rice falls behind by double digits, it does not have the tools to mount a big comeback. I think that is exactly what will happen Wednesday night. Since it is a rivalry game, Rice will come out and keep it close, but eventually Houston will go on one big run and take over the game.

SEASON RECORD

12-2

C-USA RECORD

.857

WIN PERCENTAGE

13-1

HOME RECORD infographic by michael byrnes

Follow the Action Give Thresher Sports a follow on Twitter to see live tweets covering the action in tonight’s game, as well as updates all year long. See more: @ThresherSports

BEHIND EVERY GREAT GAME THERE’S A SOLID GAME PLAN. HAVE A SAFE RIDE HOME.

69%

of college students used a designated driver when they socialized during the last school year.

BY THE NUMBERS

21-6

CHIO: have the

Source: National College Health Assessment 2016

BACKPAGE

12 • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2018

Thanksgiving Break is coming up, and a great way to express both gratitude and the spirit of giving to your fellow students is a potluck dinner. The Snacks of Rice were supposed to provide appetizers, but yet again, unsurprisingly, the men of Rice University brought nothing to the table. Luckily, there’s lots more food to go around:

GUEST: History Major BRINGING: White Guilt Dip Who better to remind you what actually happened to Native Americans after that first Thanksgiving than a history major?

GUEST: Rice University Places I’ve Cried Admin BRINGING: A 30-Rack of Tears Take a break from the table to play some Rage Cage… or maybe Sad Cage… perhaps just some Emotional Release Cage?

GUEST: Your Professor BRINGING: Roast You’ve been waiting to get this grade back for so long. You worked so hard, but instead of an A, you received a spicy roast seasoned with tons of points off. Your professor is such a roasting professional that you’ve been burnt out since the third week of class.

GUEST: That Thirsty Upperclassman BRINGING: Pumpkin Pie They had to do something with all the pumpkins they received for hooking up with freshmen. They’re kind of crusty, but there isn’t much that getting baked won’t solve.

GUEST: College Socials BRINGING: Corny Bread Someone has to organize publics. But, no matter which of Rice’s four student DJs is playing Mr. Brightside and no matter how many freshmen get EMS’d, publics are inherently corny. That being said, we all continue to eat that shit up.

GUEST: Thresher Backpage BRINGING: Tasteless Jokes Apparently, some of the jokes and imagery on the Backpage have left a bad taste in people’s mouths. There’s more where that came from.

The Backpage is satire written by Simona Munchmunchovic and designed by Simonomnom Matovic. For comments or questions, please email JamesJoyceLovesFarts@rice.edu

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